1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a record player, and more particularly to a novel record player having a loading mechanism for automatically positioning or placing a disc record on a turntable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known in the art, a record player includes a turntable supported on a center spindle. However, some troublesome efforts may be encountered when attempting to place a disc record on the turntable manually. To overcome this difficulty there have been proposed attempts, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,059, in which a slot is provided in a housing which encloses a turntable therein. The disc record is inserted into the slot, so that the disc record may be placed on the turntable. In addition, guides are provided to position the disc record on the turntable. This type of guide, however, is only partially successful because of the difficulty in bringing disc records of varying sizes to the turntable using only a single guide means. Another difficulty with this type of record player is encountered when a disc record of a smaller size is used because the width of the entrance slot is designed so as to be reduced in proportion to the size of the disc record. Thus, the disc record cannot be inserted into the housing in a satisfactory manner.
Another type of the prior art record player is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,330, in which there is disclosed an automatic record player having means for optically detecting the size of a disc record, so that the drop point of the tone arm i.e., the stylus, relative to a disc record may be determined. However, detection of the size of a disc record is accomplished on the turntable, thereby creating an undesirable load on the record or requiring the provision of additional accessories for the turntable to facilitate the detection of record size.